Friday, 27 May 2016

Mordheim Season 3 - The Burning of Dalberz

Last week saw the kick off game of our next Mordheim Campaign 'The Season of the Witch' and the on-going struggle to defeat and bring down the Necromancer Allex and his nefarious schemes.

The last season saw the bands bring fire and sword to the Necromancers door and dashed his schemes but Allex himself managing to escape and no one being able to claim ultimate campaign victory.

So with a new campaign and fresh meat for the slaughter all were lined up the the inaugural fight fest in the recently rampaged town of Dalberz where the Allex's minions had laid waste to the town. With the towns remains burning and bands of Flagellants roving through the smoking ruins the new bands of adventurers entered the fray in search of the remains of a witch who had fallen during the previous raid, hopefully to gain intel as to the location of Allex and his hideout.

Everyone engaged as combats heat up.

Showing up for the first battle of the Season were myself with the Protectorate of Sigmar, Dave K and his Marienburger's, Andy W and his Skaven horde, Ian and his Dwarven rough-riders, Andrew L with Witch Hunters and Kev and his Undead throng.

The usual random deployment around the table things kicked off almost immediately with the Marienburger's and Skaven coming on right beside each other and they had at it almost immediately and slogged it out for the whole proceedings.The Witch Hunters moved on to the field near the Dwarves and proceeded to move directly towards them with the Dwarves coming on in one corner and hemmed in by the Witch Hunters and Protectorate, they felt a bit 'cornered' right from the start.The Protectorate not wanting to engage a healthy Dwarven warband to start with and otherwise a bit out of things proceeded to move through the grave yard using any cover available and headed towards the Undead who were set up opposite the Witch Hunters but otherwise apart from the other warbands so were free to move into the flaming ruins and proceeded to start to hoover up treasure tokens and picking off a couple of wandering wild Flaggellants without hindrance.While the Marienburger's and Skaven beat each other to a pulp, the Witch Hunters gathered their forces and charged pell mell into the Dwarves and almost immediately stalled with the Dwarven toughness proving a match for the Witch Hunter Hounds and Flagellants.The Protectorate moved forward keeping together and advanced towards the Undead who were moving out into the open but partially screened by the burning pyres in the middle of the town. A couple of the Witch Hunters Hounds pounced on a lone Flagellants and having dispatched him, decided to move on and attack the Protectorates Hunter & Hounds who were swinging wide to flank the advancing Undead.

Marienburgers and Skaven continue their verticalfight in the ruins

The fights continued for the majority of the game with the Skaven and Marienburger's fairly quickly taking each other to break point but miraculously each successfully passed numerous leadership tests with neither wanting to cede victory to the other such was the closeness of the combat.

The fight between the Witch Hunters and Dwarves was less even however and though the Hunters succeeded in temporarily dropping a couple of the Dwarven crew they didn't manage to take any out until near the end.

A few random Flagellants made an occasional appearance, mainly towards the end of the fight but didn't prove to be much of an issue to any one other than provide an additional XP or two.

The Witch Hunters wilt while the Undead andProtectorate close

As the end approached the Skaven and Marienburger's both quit the field simultaneously while the Witch Hunters went down to a man (and dog) in what was a very nasty last round for them as half the band was taken out by a combination of Dwarves, Flagellants and the Protectorate all causing casualties before they could rout.

The Dwarves having taking two of their eight number in losses quit to conserve their numbers, leaving the Protectorate to weather the Undead onslaught. the Fear causing minions on the charge were enough to blunt the Protectorate's counter and though the fight lasted two or three rounds, the last of these was pretty painful as five of the Protectorates number went down to a response of only one of the Undead horde, though as Kev pointed out his Vampire (easily the most powerful figure on the table) failed to make as much as a scratch on his opponents.

The Skaven & Marienburgers slog it out taking eachother out the fray

With the high losses the Protectorate fled the field leaving the Undead the victors on the field and when the tokens were checked as to who had recovered the Witches remains it proved that the Vampire had picked up the intel and so gave the first round victory to Kev's Undead. Perhaps a portent of what is to come?

A very protracted and bloody start to the new campaign with everyone lasting to what proved to be a more than 8 turn game, pretty astounding it itself. A good start to the campaign and with the victory going to the side of evil, the next game moves into the Drakwald Forest to root out the lair of the deceased witch to hunt for clues and booty and the good guys trying to stop the evil sides bands from gaining power.